


The Prisoner

by faceofstone



Category: Myst Series
Genre: Gen, If we collectively had to suffer through this then so do the canon characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-12 01:15:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9049369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faceofstone/pseuds/faceofstone
Summary: In the city of a million Ages, there is no escape. On that island least of all.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Capella](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Capella/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide!

All he needed was a miracle - one chance to go back. In his exile on Noloben, his mind often wandered back to that place, the island he'd seen once, in his youth. Its shores were brisk and sweet, washed by freshwater, and hidden in its air, its rocks, its knotty rose-leaved trees, in the words that made it real, was the secret of time itself. If Esher could just grasp it once, he would go back and warn them all. This wretched present would be erased, or he, at least, would fade out of a barren twig of the Tree and into a glorious bountiful branch (he'd ask for a scholar's appraisal on the distinction, but they are all waiting in their untimely graves. He'll wake them. He'll wake them all). So Esher walks through the dark ruined streets of D’ni like in a dream, without letting the rubble touch him: this isn't real, or not for long.

 

His search ends deep within the J’taeri district. The Age’s name is Ahnonay, water root, which brings up memories of old verses, where water pooled down in the dark before springing again. He used to wonder if one prophet in ten thousand years had ever ever had a glimpse of him. This has to be it: history's eyes are on him now. He links.

 

There is a crack in the sky.

 

Eventually: there is a crack in a painted sky and eternal waterfalls roar beyond it. Water flows, elsewhere.

 

The dead stones of D'ni crumble inside. The past is sealed and Esher is alone.


End file.
